still undetectable??

Apr 12, 2013

Hi there..I am an HIV positive man, undetectable with a cd4 count of 380. I had unprotected sex -me receptive- with someone i highly suspect to be positive though he doesn't seem to know his status (just the fact that all he does is unprotected sex. What are the risks of me not being undetectable anymore ?? What about my CD4 ? Please please answer me...

Response from Dr. Young

Hello and thanks for posting. No need for the double pleases....

First off, the risk of acquiring HIV from a single unprotected receptive anal sexual encounter is low- on the order of less than 0.5% or less. Of course, if your partner was not HIV+, there's no risk.

Since you're already taking HIV medications (evident by having an undetectable viral load), then you could also view your medications as being both pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis. Both of these strategies have been shown to dramatically reduce the risk of getting HIV.

Since I don't think that you're at significant risk of superinfection with a second strain of HIV, there would be no expected impact on your viral load or CD4 count.

Having said all of that, none of this protects you from acquiring other sexually transmitted infections, such as gonorrhea, syphilis or viral hepatitis. I'd suggest mentioning your possible exposure to your health care provider so that you can get appropriate screening.

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